- •The noun
- •Nouns of material and abstract nouns
- •The Category of Number The singular and the plural
- •Compound nouns
- •Identical form of the plural and singular
- •Uncountable nouns used only in the singular
- •Uncountable nouns used only in the plural
- •Exercises
- •The Category of Case
- •Exercises
- •The article
- •The indefinite article is used:
- •The definite article is used:
- •No articles:
- •The use of articles with nouns of material and abstract nouns
- •The use of articles with proper nouns
- •1) Geographical names
- •2) Names of persons
- •3) The use of articles in the names of places, some buildings, public organizations
- •Special difficulties in the use of articles
- •1) The use of articles with the names of months and days, seasons, meals, languages
- •2) The use of articles with the nouns school/college, prison/jail, bed, town, church
- •Set phrases With the definite article
- •With the indefinite article
- •Without articles
- •Exercises
- •The adjective
- •Degrees of Comparison.
- •Irregular adjectives.
- •Comparative constructions.
- •Position of Adjectives.
- •Exercises
- •The adverb
- •Kinds of Adverb
- •Any more / any longer / no longer.
- •So, such.
- •Too, enough.
- •Also, too, as well, neither, either.
- •Exercises
- •The pronoun
- •Reflexive pronouns
- •Exercises
- •Indefinite pronouns
- •Exercises
- •Other, another, the other, others
- •Exercises
- •Much, many, few, little
- •Exercises
- •All, whole, either, neither, both, none
- •Exercises
- •The numeral Cardinal numbers
- •Ordinal numbers and dates
- •Exercises
- •Contents
The noun
The noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word.
There are some kinds of noun in English:
Common nouns: dog, man, table
Proper nouns: France, Madrid, Mrs. Smith, Tom
Abstract nouns: beauty, charity, courage, fear, joy
Material nouns: iron, snow, tea
Collective nouns: crowd, group, swarm, team
Class nouns: book, friend.
Collective nouns are subdivided into
Nouns used only in the singular (foliage is, machinery is)
Nouns which are singular in form but plural in meaning (police, cattle, people, gentry, clergy are)
Nouns that can be both singular and plural (crowd – crowds, fleet – fleets)
If a collective noun denotes a thing as a whole it is used with a singular verb. If it denotes a number of people or elements it is used with a plural verb.
e.g. The Russian team was playing well. The hockey team are coming tonight.
My family is small. My family are having tea now.
Nouns of material and abstract nouns
are uncountable and are generally used in the singular. But they can become class nouns to denote
Wine – wines (different sorts of the given material)
Glass – a glass (a thing made of the given material)
Beauty – a beauty (change the meaning – красотка), paper – a paper,
The Category of Number The singular and the plural
1. The plural of a noun is usually made by adding ‘s’ to the singular: a day –days, a dog – dogs, a house – houses, a month – months.
2. If the noun ends in -s, -ss, -x, -sh, -ch, -tch, the plural is formed by adding ‘es’ to the singular: a bus – buses, a box – boxes, a brush – brushes, a bench – benches, a match – matches.
3. If a noun ends in ‘o’ preceded by a consonant, the plural is generally formed by adding ‘es’: a hero – heroes, a tomato – tomatoes, a volcano – volcanoes. But words of foreign origin or abbreviated words and proper names ending in ‘o’ add ‘s’ only: dynamo – dynamos, kimono – kimonos, piano – pianos, radio – radios, kilo – kilos, photo – photos, zoo – zoos, video – videos, Romeo – Romeos, Eskimo – Eskimos, Filipino – Filipinos.
4. Nouns ending in ‘y’ following a consonant form their plural by dropping the ‘y’ and adding ‘ies’: a baby – babies, a fly – flies, a city – cities. But in proper names and compound nouns: Mary – Marys, Henry – Henrys, the Kennedys, stand-by – stand-bys.
Nouns ending in ‘y’ following a vowel form their plural by adding ‘s’: a boy – boys, a day – days, a donkey – donkeys. But in the nouns ending in ‘quy’: soliloquy – soliloquies.
5. There are 13 nouns ending in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ that drop the ‘f’ or ‘fe’ and add ‘ves’: calf, elf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, wolf: loaf –loaves, wolf – wolves.
The nouns hoof, scarf, wharf, dwarf take either ‘s’ or ‘ves’ in the plural: hoofs or hooves, wharf or wharves.
6. There are 7 nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel: man– men, woman – women, foot – feet, tooth – teeth, goose – geese, mouse – mice, louse – lice, and two nouns in the plural end in ‘en’: ox – oxen, child – children, and the noun brother in the religious context: brother – brethren.
7. Latin and Greek borrowings: on, um – a; is – es; us – i; a – ae. (phenomenon – phenomena, datum – data, crisis – crises, stimulus – stimuli, formula – formulae) but some of them may have a regular plural form (formula – formulas, memorandum – memoranda)